CONTROL LINE NAVY CARRIER
Ted Kraver, 225 W. Orchid Ln., Phoenix AZ 84021
The stage was set for a changing of the guard. The Navy Carrier champions of the past two decades have recently lost ground to the young fliers from Dallas, Texas.
Last year Bill Bischoff won the Eugene Ely Award from perpetual winner Pete Mazur. Kelly Hite had a hot hand coming off a previous year's Rookie of the Year award.
Serving as event director, consistent winner Bill Melton was out of competition. Dave Wallick, multiple record-setter and Ely award winner in the early 1980s, was back—but with last decade's equipment.
Models mentioned throughout this report are Martin MO-1s, unless otherwise indicated.
Profile
Thursday opened with light breezes—not enough push for super-slow flights.
Pete Mazur opened at 341.8, followed by Mike Greb at 337.0 (good for fifth place) and Bill Bischoff at 335.0. Kelly Hite scored a leading 359.2.
I tried a flight with the acknowledged "ugliest Carrier airplane": the four-engined GAL 38 Fleet Shadower. Continuous turning of all four propellers was not to be.
The day stretched on, as pilots waited for stronger winds. Dave Wallick blew two K&B .50s (loud reports were heard as the crank and plug blew), before his .38 engine powered his Guardian to a 322.3 and sixth place.
Marc Warwashana moved into second place with a strong 342.5. Pete and Bill responded with 358.0 and 344.0 to move into second and third place.
As the cutoff time came near, Kelly nailed his second flight for a 369.4, increasing his lead for the Ely award.
Time ran out for Marc's final attempt. Bill Calkins delivered 314.9 for seventh with his Spearfish, followed by Dale Gleason at 313.1, Gary Hull at 307.8 with a Brewster 340, Melvin Schuette at 294.1, and John Vina at 270.5 with his Consolidated XBY-1.
Andy Westerheim took the Senior Profile title with a 324.9.
Class I and II
Friday arrived with 15 mph winds gusting to 30 mph.
Kelly Hite's Class II model produced a 461.8, immediately followed by Bill Bischoff's 444.6 in Class I.
Increasing wind gusts blew Pete Mazur's larger-winged MO-1 all over the circle. After a heroic (desperate?) rescue, he packed it in for the day. My new Class I 1911 Elly Flyer pusher biplane was in the box and at UPS by noon.
Four others failed to find a break in the wind, and either did not fly or their attempts fell short of scoring. This left the higher-wing-loaded models—Bill Calkins' Fairey Firefly and John Vina's Skyrader—to face the Texans and their smaller-winged MO-1s.
However, Bill and Kelly's first scoring flights—in Class I and Class II respectively—held up throughout the day for first-place finishes (fly early, catch calmer air).
Kelly got a 383.4 with his first Class I flight, then Dale Gleason made 358.6 for third place in Class II.
After what appeared to be a tornado in the upper clouds dissolved, Bill Bischoff's second Class II flight, 429.9, moved him into second place.
To win the Ely award, all Kelly needed was to boost his Class I score by four points. He waited in vain for lower wind throughout the long afternoon. He put his Class I in the air with 15 minutes to go, and a part of the model's carburetor broke midway through its high-speed flight.
Bill Bischoff was up next, and he could have guaranteed his second Ely by eating up the final 10 minutes. However, Bill scratched his flight to lead the team that frantically replaced Kelly's carburetor.
The effort was a couple minutes away from getting the model back to the deck when the 5 p.m. cutoff hit. Kelly's "wait for the last flight" strategy worked Thursday, but backfired Friday. He earned second place in Class I.
In Class II, Dale placed third with 358.6 and John was fourth with 227.0.
Event director Bill Melton did a great job, sweating out the long delays and handling the contestants' quixotic assertions. Bill's operation ran smoothly with the volunteer tabulator Lois Melton, center judge Art Johnson, pit boss Ed Hagelrin, and timers John "Doc" Holliday, Jan Westerheim, Linda Gleason, and brothers-in-training Rob and Charlie Schwalbe.
The Navy Carrier awards banquet was held in conjunction with the Navy Carrier Society (NCS) meeting.
At the banquet, 40 people applauded each category's winners through the first five places, as NCS president Bill Calkins handed out the AMA awards.
Bill Bischoff won the Eugene Ely Award with 1218.5 points; he was followed by Kelly Hite's 1214.6. Although Kelly won Profile and Class II handily, his lower-than-normal Class I score was the margin. Bill has won two Ely awards in a row.
Kelly started building and flying Carrier in 1996, and he was the Nationals Rookie of the Year in 1997.
Navy Carrier offers many opportunities for new talent to win, and for "old talent" to get its act together. Wait 'til next year.
Lois Melton earned the Carol Johnson Spirit of Volunteerism Award, for handling the numbers that flew across the scoring table.
There was no Rookie of the Year award.
Historical presentation
A special treat was David Domizi's presentation of his 1954 Nats-winning Guardian to Michael Smith, curator of AMA's National Model Aviation Museum. Dave won the Navy Carrier Nats in 1953 and 1954.
Dave and his wife Susan spent time at this Nats observing Carrier operations, and exploring the rest of the competition and the AMA museum. He has not flown since he won in 1954.
I tracked Dave down through the Internet after finding his February 1955 Model Airplane News article last year in the AMA library. Amazingly, he still had his original 1954 Nats-winning Guardian in his attic. He selected this particular aircraft carefully, and it ruled the emerging Navy Carrier event for the next 20 years.
Dave restored the simple, but beautiful model to 1954 condition this spring.
Dave took up Navy Carrier because it was new and competition was relatively light. After winning the Nats as a Senior in 1953, he built a smaller Team Racer-size model with which he won as an Open competitor in 1954.
The MAN article shows a Fox .35 with a flapper valve for two-speed, but Dave won the Nats with a Fox .29 (with a choke-flapper valve for low speed) because he could not afford a new engine.
Dave described how he and his brother were flown to Pensacola Naval Training Center for winning an Armed Forces-day Navy Carrier contest in Cleveland, OH. They watched first-time Carrier landings, where two novice pilots had to be fished out of the drink. Dave also won 15 hours of pilot training in a Cessna 120.
(I won third place in the same contest, and got 12 hours from Blacky — the same instructor!)
Dave said he was thrilled to learn what had happened during the past 45 years, and was honored that the AMA museum had accepted his model.
NCS members were delighted with the early stories, including the enormous prizes of the era, and seeing a piece of history being pulled out of a box filled with foam peanuts.
Michael Smith described the expansion plans for the museum, now that the new AMA Headquarters office building is being constructed.
There are currently only two Carrier models on display. However, there are plans to build event-specific exhibits (including one for Navy Carrier), which take the history of the event from the formation stages to the present.
The museum needs models that brought significant advances and innovation to the Navy Carrier event. Contact the NCS if you have historical information that can flesh out the early years, or if you have important models.
The NCS business meeting discussed mufflers, to protect local flying sites. The Pylon community seems to have a good solution. With epoxy paints going off the market, the airline restrictions on flying to contests with fuel, and the desire to attract new fliers, 10% nitromethane fuel is picking up support.
The NCS decided that Sportsman will be flown with Profile on Thursday at next year's Nats. Dick Perry will be the event director.
The meeting ended with next year's NCS theme being "participation."
Saturday unofficial events
Saturday's unofficial Carrier events included Nostalgia Profile and Nostalgia Class III, Sportsman, .15 Carrier, and Sig Skyramander. Sportsman is new under Profile rules, for novice Carrier fliers. David King flew a Guardian to 188.7 for first place. Charlie Schwalbe had a 181.9, and Rob Schwalbe a 173.3—both with Skyrayers.
NCS member Paul Kegel sponsored the .15 Carrier event in memory of his son Jason, who was in a swimming accident.
Bill Bischoff won with a 251.9, followed by Kelly Hite at 219.03—both with Snipers. Melvin Schuette (203.9) and David Wallick (203.7), with his Barracuda, were neck and neck for the next two places. I had a fun flight with my twin-engine Tigercat to 179.2, followed by Dave King's Spearfish at 170.8.
Bill Bischoff dominated Sig-sponsored Skyray at 275.6, followed by—you guessed it—Kelly Hite at 248.8. Art Johnson was third with 222.8, and Melvin Schuette won fourth with 213.7. John Vina and Bill Calkins followed at 118.51 and 69.6.
Model Aviation Navy Carrier columnist Dick Perry sponsored the Nostalgia event, for historic pre-1977 airplanes and non-Schnuerle engines, using the old scoring rules.
I captured first in Profile at 243.8 with my Loening M-8, and John Vina and his XPC-1 followed with 202.3.
In Class I/II, a 406.4 with my Sterling Guardian (II) took first place, and Art Johnson was second with 312.3 (I) and 233.7 (II)—both Guardians.
Art Johnson won the Roland Baltes Award, for best-exemplifying the spirit of Nostalgic Carrier.
More-complete Nats scoring and equipment data is in the fall issue of the NCS newsletter. Contact Bill Bischoff (3734 Truesdell, Dallas TX 75244) to join NCS for $6 a year. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
